According to criteria of absolute necessity, what
takes place in our country of grave incidents where martyrs die and blood of
police and army men is shed necessitates that we tackle these incidents first…
however, sometimes one finds himself before a duty that he shall not neglect…
especially that it is not personal and has to do with the nation’s history and
consciousness of generations… also, these grave incidents were proved not to
take place if it wasn’t for the absence of consciousness of those who commit
those crimes… and so, to me, they are all connected.
Today, I continue what I promised to tackle regarding
the notes I called “footnotes over what Amr Moussa wrote”… I start by
explaining two points misunderstood by some… the first was when I gave the example
of the folklore proverb saying “do not mess with the whore lest she accuses you
of adopting her conduct…” I meant a certain writer who meant to hint in an
improper way to Dr. Hoda Abdelnasser… the second was when I wrote that we have a
“genuine character”, I meant the one who wrote the memoirs – or better say “memories”
– who fell in the trap of adoring himself the thing that necessitates seeking
help from scientists specialized in psychology and psychiatry.
I revised written sources and other oral accounts from
people who witnessed the time when Mr. Moussa worked in the foreign ministry
until he left it… I committed – like a student studying history – to what I learned
of research disciplines and found some faults that may amount to be committed
on purpose regarding the account of the ex-foreign minister.
I will give some examples but not all of them as I have
many… Mr. Moussa published a photo for Egypt’s delegation in India during the
time of President Nasser and Mrs. Indira Ghandi… this photo includes the
president, Field Marshal Abdelhakim Amer, Zakaria Mohie ed-Din, Anwar Sadat, Hussein
ash-Shafie’, and Salah Nasr… this was what he wrote as a caption… it also
includes Sedqi Soliman, Mahmoud Riad, Abdelmagid Farid, Salah ash-Shahed whose
names he did not mention.
The truth is this photo was for Egypt’s delegation in
another conference as the delegation that was in India included president
Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Mahmoud Riad, Salah Nasr, and there were some aides of
Riad accompanying him like Ashraf Ghorbal, Abdelra’ouf ar-Ridi, and Amr Moussa…
and it was ar-Ridi who wrote the statement along with the Indian officials… in such
regard, one should mention that the diplomatic and political norms do not give
the title “member of delegation” to all who travelled or were present in the
meetings… otherwise, they would have mentioned the names of secretaries, staff
participating in Protocols, and others including drivers and cooks.
Mr. Moussa talked about the issue of Egypt’s debts to
the United States but did not mention the fact saying that Egypt’s ambassador in
Washington Abdelra’ouf ar-Ridi was the one who worked hard to drop those debts…
and who convinced President Mubarak of the necessity to strike while the iron
is hot… as Mubarak was hesitant until his ambassador told him to rest assured
that the American would not get mad… afterwards, Mr. ar-Ridi exerted tremendous
efforts with the Congress to get the matter done…
The whole details were mentioned in ambassador Abdelra’ouf
ar-Ridi’ memoirs “life journey… Egypt and American… battles of war and peace”,
chapter 18 from page 473 to page 493… I call upon all who look for the truth to
have a look over the very important details mentioned in that book.
In such regard, Mr. Moussa who wrote his book titled “whether
memoirs or memories”, does not cease, throughout his book and whenever he has
the chance, to use a word – whether this word is attributed to him or other
people like president Mubarak for example – that aims at degrading others or
conveying an ambiguous meaning… perhaps the reason behind that – as I will
detail later – is the character of Amr Moussa that is very obvious throughout
the book and which is agreed upon by most of those who were close to or worked
with him… it is that unbelievably “augmented image of oneself” to the extent that
he negates any other one… especially if that other one was a rival or a
competent one like Osama el-Baz, Ahmed Maher, Abdelra’ouf ar-Rid, and others.
For example he wrote in page 590 about Mubarak’s insistence
to “change ar-Ridi immediately” which does convey an ambiguous meaning saying
that ar-Ridi perpetrated an outrageous deed in the same degree that it conveys
ambiguity from Mubarak’s side which he did not tell about… while ar-Ridi was already
preparing himself to leave Washington at the beginning of 1992 as he knew he
would reach the legal age of pension in July of the same year since he was born
on July 2nd, 1932… for that reason, he started his visits and “goodbye”
meetings to the American administration and Congress… another thing that may
question the veracity of Moussa’s account is that the president who insisted on
immediately ending the mission of ar-Ridi was the same one who asked ar-Ridi to
call him after his return to Egypt… and it happened that the president invited
him along with his wife to meet him in Burg al-Arab… and ar-Ridi and his wife
spent about two hours with Mubarak and his wife.
As to what is related to al-Baz and Ahmed Maher as
examples representing the other ones, Mr. Moussa intentionally meant to hint at
them in an improper way in his book… however, Dr. Moustafa al-Feki and Dr.
Farouk al-Baz replied to what was written about Osama al-Baz… as to Ahmed
Maher, no one until now replied to what was written about him, especially what
Mubarak said about him describing him as “the man who sets up problems for
others”… I wish I have the time and effort to reply to what was written against
the two late men whom Moussa mentioned in an improper way.
And so, we have here some facts that were not hundred
percent correct… some narrated by Moussa from his own personal perspective telling
a little part of the truth while some other facts were completely void of any
truth.
Mr. Moussa also wrote about what he called “pursuing the
Israeli nuclear program” and mentioned important details about the efforts he
exerted along with the Egyptian foreign ministry in order to force the “Zionist
state” – this term is mine and does not belong to Mr. Moussa – to submit to the
treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons… however, he did not give due
details regarding the failure in achieving such task… as what happened was that
the United States of America changed the expiry date of the treaty of Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons from being subject to review every five years by the parties
who signed it to being in force unlimitedly.
If one interpreted things in the same way as the
writer of the memoirs did regarding some incidents and persons… and if one could
use colloquial idioms, one would say to him “how clever you are in aiming at
your target… is this the result of your pursuit?”… just to remind you, this
phrase of “how clever you are in aiming at your target” was said by Stephan
Rosti to Muhammed Tawfiq when the latter shot him by mistake when they were
chasing their enemies… I shall continue writing about the “footnotes” for the
last time in another article later.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in
Almasry alyoum newspaper on October 25, 2017.
To see the original article,
go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #amr_moussa
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